The Novel and Manga of Haruhi Suzumiya

[Roger Rambo]

Jintor, it seems like your holding a bit high of a standard here. You seem upset that they took a pulp novel written it in Japanese...and translated it into a pulp novel in english. As much as we like Haruhi, it's not a literary classic.

[Nappy Hared Azn]

Seriously. I watched Monsters vs. Aliens a few days ago. Entertaining? Yes. Oscar material? Carter has a better chance of getting re-elected for a second term in 2012 than Monsters vs. Aliens does of winning Best Picture.

Not every movie needs to be directed by an Oscar winner and not every book has to be written by a Nobel Prize holder.

[Jintor]

But this one shouuuuuuuuuuuuuld

Anyway, I picked up the book and read it on the way back from university, just to spite everybody.

It's decent.

It's not brilliant.

I can live with that, I guess.

PS What's with Kyon never being surprised, even in his monologues? The only exclaimations I could catch were mostly in other people's dialogue. Opinion stands about being similar to Baka-Tsuki, although it's a little more readable than their efforts. Also, Nagato seemed a little more... Nagato in this translations.

I also figure I'm probably just tired of reading Melancholy, what with the Baka-Tsuki, Strato, and my versions, as well as Kaisos/Discreets/Mine for genderbending.

So yeah. I guess a pulp novel got translated into a pulp novel. Screw you, high expectations, I should never have let you into my brain.

[CrowKenobi]

Anime News Network has an article about volume 2 (release info and a 28 page preview)...

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by CrowKenobi

Anime News Network has an article about volume 2 (release info and a 28 page preview)...

Old news is old. ANN is so out of date... Except for the preview info.

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by quigonkenny

Old news is old. ANN is so out of date...

No, even the preview was up when someone linked to the webpage update in this thread. Old news is indeed old.

[quigonkenny]

Speaking of the excerpt, I've got the Baka-Tsuki version up beside the Little, Brown version, and am noticing a few differences (lots easier to compare translations when they're both on the computer). Mostly it's in the manner of fluidity, where the Little, Brown version says the same thing, just not quite in the same way, whether because a more direct translation (which I assume Baka-Tsuki is) is a little clunky regarding choice of words, or there's an obscure Japanese idiom that when directly translated makes little to no sense in English (can't put wiki links in a book, at least not yet). But I did come across one part, during chapter 1 of Sigh, that made me take note (toward the bottom of excerpt page 21):

Baka-Tsuki version:

"Hasn't it always been that way?" Koizumi said softly to me, carrying a smile so dashing one has an urge to go draw it.

Little, Brown version:

“That’s how it always is,” Koizumi whispered to me.
The elegant smile he had made me want to draw on his face.

Not having the original Japanese passage at hand (and not being able to read Japanese, in any case), I couldn't tell you which one of the parts in bold is more correct, but I don't think anyone will argue the latter is both funnier, and more in line with Kyon's character... ^_^

And I can say with certainty that Kyon's indeterminately inner voice has at least one appearance in this excerpt. Now if only I can remember if it ever really showed up in Volume 1, or if Little, Brown picked up that they missed it in Volume 1 and made sure not to miss it in Volume 2?

[Kogetsu Shirogane]

Given the series' love of mentioning people drawing on someone else's face, Little, Brown's version is probably more accurate.

[Jintor]

His indeterminite inner voice is present in Vol 1, but not too often. It's there, though.

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by Jintor

His indeterminite inner voice is present in Vol 1, but not too often. It's there, though.

Now that you've read the official translation more recently than I have, is it in there as well, or just in the original? Or was answering that question in the affirmative the whole point of your above quote?

[Tyabann]

The inner voice thing IS present in Little, Brown's Vol. 1, yes.

[Jintor]

It's actually at pretty much the places I remember it being in the Baka-Tsuki translations. It's not as common as you'd think, but it's there.

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by Jintor

It's actually at pretty much the places I remember it being in the Baka-Tsuki translations. It's not as common as you'd think, but it's there.

That's what I was thinking. I seem to remember it being more prevalent in the later volumes.

[Solachinx]

So, since BLR aired today and S2 has officially started, I was wondering if maybe some news on novel 10 had been released, as some people theorised?

[Tyabann]

The July issue of Sneaker supposedly has a new Tanigawa story, or something like that.

[Jintor]

I picked up the second volume of the manga, and it is great. Artistic improvement goes through the series, so that the incredibly non-Kyon-like Kyon becomes more Kyon by the end of Melancholy. I wasn't sure if it was some kind of metaphor or just artistic evolution, but it was good to see his familiar face in manga form again.

There's also a few additions in the manga that I found amusing, like the camera, or the emphasis on Yuki's trip to the library, or Yuki's messages becoming progressively more garbled as space-time ruptures during Haruhi's world-creation.

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by Jintor

There's also a few additions in the manga that I found amusing, like the camera, or the emphasis on Yuki's trip to the library, or Yuki's messages becoming progressively more garbled as space-time ruptures during Haruhi's world-creation.

The camera thing was fucking epic.

In all honesty, I do like the manga's more subtly "typical protagonist" Kyon, for some reason.

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by Jintor

I picked up the second volume of the manga, and it is great. Artistic improvement goes through the series, so that the incredibly non-Kyon-like Kyon becomes more Kyon by the end of Melancholy. I wasn't sure if it was some kind of metaphor or just artistic evolution, but it was good to see his familiar face in manga form again.

There's also a few additions in the manga that I found amusing, like the camera, or the emphasis on Yuki's trip to the library, or Yuki's messages becoming progressively more garbled as space-time ruptures during Haruhi's world-creation.

Told ya.

By the time you come out of the Melancholy arc Kyon bassically looks and acts how you would normally expect him to.

[Jintor]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

The camera thing was fucking epic.

In all honesty, I do like the manga's more subtly "typical protagonist" Kyon, for some reason.

In visual design, or in mind? Visual design I... well, I dunno. I liked that it made him feel younger but he didn't start looking like Kyon until the end of the book. I think visually he's tied too much to the Anime in my mind, but... I dunno, the other him looks brash. Koizumi looked kind of odd until the end of Melancholy as well (there's this great page somewhere during his "Closed Space" spiel where he opens his eyes and it's just creepy as ****), but the girls (aside from Yuki) looked about right for the entire run, so I guess the artist just got better and better at drawing guys.

If you're talking about in mind, I agree with you entirely. It makes him seem more like a high-schooler than the anime.

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by Jintor

If you're talking about in mind, I agree with you entirely. It makes him seem more like a high-schooler than the anime.

Yeah, mentality-wise. The novel's localization had some of that too, mostly in "Principal Toupee" and his slightly increased lusting after Mikuru.

No complaints there.